Meanwhile BP continues to spray toxic dispersants on the spill. The oil industry believes these dispersants help break up oil molecules while most scientists agree that they are toxic to wildlife. Despite a request from the EPA BP has refused to stop using them.

The spill was caused by an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling rig on April 20th, 2010. When the rig sunk and caused damage to the oil well a mile beneath the surface of the water, the blowout preventer — the only back-up plan the oil industry has for spills — failed, causing oil to start leaking into the Gulf. Since the leak started in April, it is estimated that over 150 million gallons of oil have spilled into the Gulf of Mexico. In comparison, the Exxon Valdez — previously the worst oil spill in US history — leaked 10.8 million gallons of oil into the waters off of Alaska.

[…] order to prevent an even more dire situation, the containment cap may have to be reopened to release some of the pressure building from the gas. […]

starfish_primeJuly 6, 2010 at 11:54 am

The chemical dispersant being used by BP, “Corexit” is owned, patented, and produced by BP. They are paying themselves to clean up this spill, because they learned that an oil spill is costly, so why not also make money cleaning it up.